Dawn Images

The shooting for the Imran Khan biopic has begun.

The film Kaptaan has been making its rounds on the rumour mill and it has recently been confirmed that production has begun with actor Abdul Mannan starring as the cricket player turned politician and Saeeda Imtiaz playing Jemima Khan.

Team Images got in touch with the two leading actors to find out more about the film.

Abdul Mannan revealed that the film had been in the pipeline for quite some time and had been waiting for the right director and crew to start production. The film will be directed by Faisal Aman Khan

"Finally it's done and the wait is over," said the actor, adding, "The new people will take this movie to the next level so the delay is like a blessing in disguise and I don't really think it's too late."

About taking on the role of Imran Khan, Mannan said, "Portraying Imran Khan was not easy for me in the beginning but slowly I got into the character and it was an amazing experience."

To get into character, Mannan met with the PTI chief.

"We met around three times. Once it was a proper full meeting at his Bani Gala residence and we had a lovely time. It was a pleasure meeting him."

"Its a demanding role but I did the best that I could," he added.

Saeeda Imtiaz revealed that while we all have already seen her in Javed Sheikh's directorial comeback Wajood, it was Kaptaan that was her first film.

"Wajood released first so it's being treated like my debut but my first project was portraying Jemima Khan so it was much more difficult. I was new to the field and was actually training for six months in tasks like makeup before I ventured into acting. It was a great experience, I learned from my first experience and slowly and steadily, eventually started learning from different directors, projects, you know you automatically groom from one project to another."

Unlike Abdul Mannan, Saeeda did not meet the figure she'd be portraying but she did have "a conversation with her over the phone."

"We also exchanged a few words over email. I was supposed to meet her in London as well but that couldn't happen. I did meet Khan Sahab around 4-5 years ago. The entire team was there."

Saeeda also claimed that the movie will not feature Imran Khan's political history as much as his own life.

"Kaptaan has nothing to do with elections. It's a film purely on his personal life, like his life spent with Jemima and politics, but not the other wives that he has at the moment. There are a lot of things that people might not know and they'll find out because of the film."

Saeeda revealed that finding a new director was just one of the many reasons Kaptaan was delayed but overall the main reason was that it had to be just right.

"The film's delay had a lot of reasons to it. Khan Sahab had sustained an injury during the time we were in production and the producers felt it would be insensitive to carry on. With the passage of time, the producers also decided on reshoots because they wanted it to be perfect. I'm glad that the new director is looking at the film with a fresh vision because it gives new aspects to Khan's character. I think Abdul Mannan did a good job as Imran Khan, he did a lot of research for it and really worked hard but I guess its all for the audience to decide. I can't talk about how well I did either. I just hope I did it justice.

According to Imtiaz, the film was also shot in different locations of Pakistan, including many northern areas and some locations in Balochistan.

"There was a scene because of which me and Mannan did not sleep for 24 hours straight! The timing of the scenes were very crucial so we were working over time and half way during it we were so exhausted! We decided to cheat a little and Mannan held my script in front of him but away from the camera because it was impossible for us to memorise our lines in that situation. I still remember that day, we all still laugh about it because remember I was new to the field. We still talk about how proud we were of ourselves for making it all happen.

There is no confirmed release date for Kaptaan but Saeeda predicts it to release this year after the elections.